This Is NYC Car Life

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NYC

New York City car culture isn’t a thing? Think again.

Speedhunters readers can all agree, the passion for living life through cars knows no boundaries on this planet. There are parts of the world which many of us commonly look to for indulging our automotive urges. Japan, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the US West Coast – these areas of the world are place where enthusiasts often plan vacations for the sole purpose of enjoying cars.

Add New York City to that list.

Now, I know some of you may be thinking ‘no way, no one drives in NYC!’ As a native New Yorker and automotive enthusiast, I can tell you that I’ve heard this statement often.

This is why, over the past few years, myself along with a few of my close friends and family have undertaken the mission of bringing to light NYC car culture, with a specific focus on Japanese cars.

In the past, there have been a few attempts to cover New York’s car scene by different publications, so I won’t claim we’re the first to do this. However, in my and many other locals’ opinions, they’ve never been an accurate representation. That’s what we’d like to change.

Together, we are PRIME (primenyc.co). Under that moniker, we hold various events throughout the year, in and around the city, with the sole purpose of bringing enthusiasts together and building a community of shared resources.

Enjoying JDM cars in the Big Apple sounds a bit far fetched, but we make it happen. Our roads aren’t the best (terrible actually), but the passion is strong, and as they say on Broadway, the show must go on.

Street Icons

Our focus is the street, not only as a space for display but also where modification style emanates. Inspired by ’90s Japan automotive lifestyle, we build our cars and celebrate the culture as a homage to that era.

As the end of the season approached, we wanted to hold one more event to close out 2016. We received word that friends from Japan, Texas, Canada, LA, as well as the north and south areas of the East Coast would be in town, many of whom own builds that would be right at home in Option magazine or on this very website. Reason being, the selection of tuning brands and build styles owner’s use are often from the iconic pre-Y2K decade. Thus, the title for our event manifested itself as Street Icons.

The plan, meet at an undisclosed location, cruise to Times Square, cruise through Manhattan, then meet at another undisclosed location. Sounds simple enough, but the risks are always looming. As in any densely populated city, parking real estate is the highest commodity.

Dreaming of our own Daikoku PA, finding a space for a large group to gather is the first step. Planning the route comes next, ensuring the chosen roads won’t demolish a rare front bumper or diffuser that likely took months to arrive from Japan, while always keeping watch for any number of random issues that could occur.

Finally, it’s finding yet another low-key area to regroup and disperse. With the unlimited number of yellow cabs, MTA buses, delivery trucks and the boys and blue, it’s a bit of an undertaking, but nothing is more satisfying than seeing a large group of tuned Japanese cars cruising through this metropolis.

The Cars

The East Coast and Tri-State area in particular are home to some of the most amazing Japan-inspired builds. Time attack-spec Evos, Skylines of all eras, full RE Amemiya catalog RX-7 builds, NSXs, AE86s, Supras, VIP sedans – the list goes on. You name it, it’s probably here somewhere. Most just don’t know and are quick to dismiss this as a possibility. On this night, many of the regulars along with new faces came out to enjoy the bright lights of Times Square.

Speaking of new faces, our friends from Texas, Final Form USA, also made the long journey to the Tri-State area to partake in the festivities. Remember those contemporary CarShopGlow FD3S LED taillights that showed up randomly some time ago? Final Form were one of the first to introduce those to the US market; their tuning style lines up with ours: JDM style and power for both the street and the track.

For Street Icons, the city once again proved itself a symbol of diversity. Likeminded enthusiasts from all walks of life gathered to enjoy cars. To our friends outside of NYC and around the world, we invite you to join us sometime.

Ever notice how the standardSpeedhunters scenario is a phenomenal car in a phenomenally-unsuitableenvironment?Thisparticular article is set in New York, butwhether it's Tokyo, Singapore,Los Angeles, Melbourne,London orwherever, so often you guys do a story on a great car in a place that'sactively hostile to private car ownership. Especially if it's a fun vehicle.High taxes, smoginspections, no parking, absurd speed limits, auto theft, exorbitant tolls,hideous traffic snarls as a matter of course...it all makes me wonder why guys wholove cars so much live in big cities at all.And the powers-that-be treat thekinds of activities that car guys enjoy with the same disdain the FAA shows tosomeone flying a stunt plane through a takeoff pattern unannounced.

Ice Age I feel like you're missing the point a little bit. To me what this shows is that car enthusiasts are everywhere and a true enthusiast is not limited by their environment. Perhaps a chosen career path or family requires an urban life. Of course there are countless enthusiasts who are able to live in an environment that caters to automotive obsession but, from a Speedhunting perspective, I think the ones who are able to enjoy their cars regardless of the environment they chose/are forced to live in are, often times, the ones with the most passion. Meaning they have the most to overcome in order to enjoy what is important to them.

Awesome. Just awesome. I've owned a few cars while living in Manhattan. It's not easy, but for a car guy it's worth it. I just sold my last - 1990 Mustang LX - in order to buy an apartment. Unfortunate but fair cause. Must start following Prime to see when the events are happening, hope i'm allowed to hang, i'll bring my AustraliaDM-spec bicycle...

I live in NYC and have seen so many of these cars and ALOT more cruising by. Imagine standing on a busy street corner, cars honking, people jamming up the crosswalk and 3 R34 GTRs are sitting at the stoplight totally hidden from the unsuspecting world around them! I have looked into getting something myself (JDM 89 Porsche Turbo) and found the guys at Nostalgia imports who are a great group to know in the tristate area for opportunities like this! http://nostalgiaimports.com/

Thank you everyone for reading the article and for viewing our photos/video. We cannot express our gratitude enough. It was an amazing night that's for sure. If you're ever planning on coming to NYC, keep an eye out, you might see us rolling through. Until then, enjoy Speedhunting.

cjhcjh Therealstig We love RE-Amemiya out here. One of our main guys with the AC037 conversion wasn't even out that night as he was prepping for SEMA. Wish he coulda made it. Next time! Here's a pic of his car:

Love it! After having lived in NYC for 4 years and not seeing much of the car culture scene for the reasons you mentioned, it's great that you're trying to organize every one together! It's the greatest city in the world, and you've made it even greater!

Ice Age Yeah, unfortunately car life almost always comes after. After things like career, family etc. So if you've got the passion, the environment won't hold you back.Usually when the environment is harsh, but there is a car enthusiast, they'll have a lot more passion. This is because without that strong passion, they wouldn't be bothered to be into cars in a place like that, throwing in the towel and finding another hobby.For cases like that; Passion = Perseverance. Very much so.

I really hate to be negative...but why does that red Integra have a, "Honda Primo" windshield banner? While I'm 110% for using authentic parts to build up your "JDM" car..I'm 210% against making it into something it isn't; which is what the Integra is trying to do. It'd be the same thing as taking an EK or EG Honda Civic and putting "No Good Racing" decals, Vinyl square number plates, and white lettering on your tires..and calling it a, "Kanjo Civic".

I saw a video of this meet/cruise the other day. Awesome calibre of cars! That white FD is so nice. It's good to see car culture even state by state in countries cause it can vary. I honestly didnt expect that many nice cars in NYC. New York is basically known as the mecca for everything but car culture is something that was basically unheard of from there (at least from an international perspective). Obviously there is car culture everywhere, but it is very nice to see such a big turn out of really high quality cars.

Did the police do anything? They're speaking to the Evo driver. In Australia police have the power to basically take your car off the road on the spot if it has mods, are the cops like that there?

DinoSawr Thank you! Yes the white FD is one of my favorites as well. The owner is such a good guy. Check his instagram: @resuper7. Your expectation is what we found most people think about when we tell them about car life in NYC. The scene has been thriving for years in different ways, it just never gets much coverage. We want to change that though!As for the police, when we hold these events, we all make sure not to cause any trouble or break any traffic laws. We're all regular people with jobs and families that just like to drive cool cars. We have nothing but respect for the NYPD. We don't want to cause them any more issues since they're guarding the busiest area in NYC. They are awesome to us when we roll through. Most of them just like seeing cool cars pass by. They get up close to see what's going on but nothing happened that night. It makes for great imagery, though!

EdoPRIMENYC DinoSawr Good way to make a statement is to fill times square with awesome jap cars thats for sure haha Followed him

Thats good! As long as everyone behaves and respects the road laws the police shouldn't be an issue. Sadly in some other parts of the world even a drive/meet for charity can end up with police defecting cars for mods even when no one does anything wrong. I guess NYPD have their priorities like you said which makes sense.

Awesome event, glad everything went good! Incredible background with the all the lights too

Was such an amazing night. I could not believe it when I heard we were going to be going for a cruise through Times Square. Like, is that even possible? Was such a crazy cool group of cars. I was so bummed I had to leave early. I needed to get back to California, so it was time to go. I escaped the Island through the Lincoln tunnel, and headed west. Thank you all for putting this event together, and for the incredible coverage! Would love to get back to NYC to do this again!

Ella . even though Rita `s storry is really great, last thursday I bought a gorgeous Dodge after making $5825 this past 5 weeks and-just over, ten-grand last-munth . it's actualy my favourite-job I've ever had . I started this six months/ago and immediately was bringin home at least $76 per-hr.http://www.woltcash.com/

bvs092309 haha maybe I was waiting for someone to notice! It would be pretty amazing to be picked up by a full catalog AIMGAIN RC. The owner also has a beautiful GRB STi. Hopefully we can share that with the SH audience one day as well.

Skreamies This particular event took place late last year. These end of season gatherings are always pretty awesome with the quality cars and people that attend. It's the last time most of us will be in the same place before the winter gets brutal.

Darelumga I know exactly what you're talking about. Racer X, back in the day there was a ton of street racing in NYC. Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens. This is pre-F&F; and is actually what inspired the movie.The R34 article, I was there with some old friends. They are local. Two R34 and one R33. Here's the piece by Matthew Jones if folks want to revisit: http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/07/three-skyline-gtrs-in-new-york-city/Those cars are still here and they make their rounds here and there I'm telling you NYC/NJ and the Northeast are full of JDM car culture. Most of it in hiding until we have an epic night like we did with Street Icons.

bluestreaksti Maybe Thing is, at the spaces we gather, we have to make sure it's kept secret. Otherwise the burn out ricers and kids who's dad bought them a Camaro will show up and start revving for no reason. We can expect a visit from the NYPD shortly after that... :/

Saw this meeting in Krispy Media his vlog. To read this article with stunning photography and video makes it even better. Great meet and cars that showed up! Keep it up guys. Here the link to the video I was talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu4M1ANX754

Landon . I can see what your saying... Fred `s report is neat... on friday I got a top of the range Ariel Atom from bringing in $5137 recently and just over $10k lass month . it's certainly the nicest-job I've had . I started this 9-months ago and right away began to bring home minimum $69, per-hour.http://www.woltcash.com/

Wow.. Amazing! These cars looks so right on Times Square! I was in NYC in January 2016. Didn't see any JDM/tuned cars at all. I was so disappointed. I also searched online too see if there was meets or anything. Where should I look next time?

Considering none of these cars are normally driven on the streets of NYC on a regular basis, stupid article. I've lived here my whole life; pretty bad representation of the car scene in NYC. Whats the point of posting multiple photos of RX7's from Texas in an article that's supposed to represent NYC's car scene?

StephonFazalKhan I've lived here my entire life as well. Seen many things that made the culture epic back in the day. Zerega, Hunts Point, Spring Valley, Jackie Robinson, DPA, Francis Lewis, etc. I disagree with pretty much everything you've said. I don't expect the world to agree with me or what we do either. That being said, I'm very much looking forward to reading your article about NYC car life some day.

MariusEngenSkinnes Off-season now bro. Most cars are hibernating. Once spring hits folks will be around. Not sure at this capacity though. For something like this, spring/summer time is the best bet.

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Speedhunters is an international collective of photographers, writers & drivers with a shared passion for uncovering the world's most exciting car culture stories.

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